The present invention relates to flexible urinary drainage bags and, particularly, to an improved bag and support structure which is self-standing and will maintain the inlet system for the bag in an elevated condition when the bag is rested upon a support surface, such as the floor.
Rigid urinary drainage bags capable of standing alone are known in the prior art, but have been largely abandoned because they do not accommodate to carriage under patients' clothing, nor to bedside hanging. Flexible urinary drainage bags of the type presently in use are well facilitated for carriage under patients' clothing or hanging from a bed, but are not adapted to be self-standing when placed on a support surface, such as the floor. Such placement generally occurs when a patient sits in a bedside chair and occurs, almost without exception, when a patient using such a bag defecates in the toilet. It results in the bag lying on its side so that the inlet system for the bag is flooded with the contained urine, which may already be contaminated. Where the urine is contaminated, flooding of the inlet system generally results in ascent of bacteria to the bladder and in resulting infection.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,186,410; 3,299,422; and 3,357,429 exemplify flexible urinary drainage bags of the type well known in the prior art. These bags are not self-standing in the sense of the bag forming the subject of the present invention. U.S. Pat. No. 3,263,848 discloses a flexible nursing container which is relevant in that it is provided with a framing structure adapted to support the container in an upright condition. The framing structure, however, is materially different from that of the present invention in both structure and mode of operation. U.S. Pat. No. 3,339,721 discloses a flexible bag supported in a self-standing structure which is similar to that of the present invention in that the structure includes hingedly interconnected side panels between which the bag is suspended. The bag is not, however, adapted to hang beneath the panels so that, upon placing the structure on a support surface, the bag forces the panels apart into a self-standing condition.